From Cupboard of Doom to Cloffice

~ IAmFrogPrincess

This is basically a photo blog post.

I had a Cupboard of Doom. Everyone has one. I had a baby gate to help contain the doominess. I had (actually still have) a curtain to hide the disgrace, because when I was working from home, I sat at my kitchen table in front of the Cupboard of Doom. Teams calls with that horror behind me would not have been good (or professional!). It’s the cupboard under the stairs, which in my house is just off the kitchen.

For some reason, I had heard about “cloffices”, or closet offices and mooched around Pinterest, seeking inspiration. I decided I could create a cloffice in my Cupboard of Doom. First, I had to get rid of all the stuff I’ve been hoarding. Somewhere at the back, there was my tumble dryer which I haven’t used for years. Mostly because of all the stuff in front of it! Plus the cost and I have Clive (heated airer).

So below is the process…..

This was to be the starting point!

So much stuff, just piled and piled. The vision was developing in my head but wasn’t fully formulated

That baby gate though 😳

The declutter started in earnest

Trapped! And *why* do I keep the boxes things come in? Please do ignore the state of the kitchen beyond!
This was what was left behind after I’d got all that other stuff out! There’s the 20+ year old tumble dryer!
Ugggghhhhh. The state of that floor! And many books on antenatal education, pregnancy and birth. And one on small gardens. And a double sleeping bag
Basically clear! It actually only took a day! That flooring at the back is clearly what the original 1960s floor was and the former owners ran out of tiles (the green and cream are also in the kitchen)
Painted and attached some fairy lights
1960s floor covered with self adhesive vinyl tiles (that I have in my bedroom and on the landing upstairs).
Kallax down the end (already had this)
Then I impulsively bought a desk. That is way too big. I thought I could make it work. I could not. So now that desk is going to be utilised elsewhere
Then I thought maybe this could work. It doesn’t
So then we got to this. I had a 20cm wide shelf and some shelf brackets, so I attached those to the front of the Kallax for additional work space.
And we ended up with this. A 30cm wide shelf attached with metal brackets – it’s solid. The monitor came off its stand (who knew!) and I got a flat bracket to attach it to the wall. Lots of lighting to make it a bright work space. IKEA pinboard on the wall for bits
My little workspace!
I’ve done two days working from home in here now and it’s a great space with much fewer distractions than sitting at the kitchen table.

I’m really pleased with what I achieved in this space. I do wish I’d been less impulsive and gone with the shelf to start with! Maybe I needed to go through that process to get to the end result though.

I also think that the less space I have to hoard stuff, the better. The vast majority of the contents of the Cupboard of Doom went to the tip and the book bank.

So yeah, from Cupboard of Doom to Cloffice!

Published by IAmFrogPrincess

Knitter of Rooms at the Unseen University. Unique and special breed of human. Collector of letters, generally beginning with "L". Practiced in the Art of Tsundoku.

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